Strengthening Science-Business Partnerships: A Project to Overcome Collaboration Barriers
Firms and scientists face collaboration barriers, and stronger support is needed to boost partnerships and innovation. While firms rely on scientific expertise for product development and problem-solving, scientists often need firms to commercialize their research. Finding the right match is particularly difficult for SMEs with limited outreach resources.
The Croatian Context: Current Landscape and Initiatives
Croatia’s Science-Business Collaboration Needs Support. Despite recent improvements in Croatia's Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) system, there are ongoing challenges in:
- Applied research
- Science-business collaboration
- Commercialization of academic research
Only 8% of Croatian companies collaborate with higher education institutions, significantly below the EU average. A World Bank survey found that 47% of companies lacked information about relevant scientists. This highlighted a pressing need for improved collaboration to support innovation and technology transfer.